Visitation
by Khiori
Summary: Some time after Valeris' arrest and incarceration for treason and murder, Saavik keeps an old promise and offers a lost friend a possible hope. (Character relation story told in dialogue only format, with alternating voices between Valeris and Saavik-beginning with Valeris.)


"You . . . came."

"Yes."

"I . . . did not think you would."

"I gave my word."

"That was . . . long ago."

"Time is irrelevant. What is given; remains so."

"You . . . honor me still?"

"I honor myself still."

"Then . . . there is . . . no other reason you came?"

"There . . . are others."

"May I ask?"

"You may."

"Will you . . . tell?"

"Perhaps."

"For me or for . . . him?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"One of your reasons."

"He did not send me."

"No . . . he . . . would not. You risk much with him to come, you know this, correct?"

"He . . . does not know I have come."

"A deceit."

"A privacy."

"And when he learns of it?"

"I choose my own way, as he chooses his. Divergence is always a possibility."

"You are . . . untouched by . . . being left alone?"

"I have always been alone."

"You say it as if it does not trouble you."

"It does not. What is; is. Acceptance, therefore, is merely logical."

"It is emptiness."

"Only if one . . . fears who remains."

"Philosophy."

"Psychology."

"Since when have you . . . found acceptable . . . what lies in the mirror?"

"I did not say acceptable, only accepted."

"Schemantics."

"Accuracy."

"I have never believed in absolutes."

"Perhaps, your first error."

"You speak as if I were one of your computational equations."

"My equations are not faulty."

"And if they were?"

"Then I would deconstruct their mathematical processions until I had located what was incorrect."

"And?"

"Replace it with one that was correct."

"Sentient beings are not so simple."

"Sentient beings are."

"You have too much . . . faith . . . in them."

"Perhaps, your second error."

"As I recall, you refused the place of my teacher. Indeed, it was you who placed me with him."

"I did."

"And now you regret your decisions?"

"No."

"Then you deny your responsibility for what happened because of them?"

"I gave you the opportunity to succeed. What you chose to do with it, however, lies solely with you. I cannot deny what is not mine to claim in the first."

"Convenience."

"Truth."

"I would know why else you came."

"I believe you based your . . . incorrect . . . choices on a . . . correct . . . principle."

"You jest. And?"

"This leads me to perceive a . . . possibility . . . that you are . . . salvageable."

"And your evidence of such an existing principle?"

"Two points within the logistical structure of your actions that did not balance upon meditative contemplation."

"How flattering. You do find me an equation."

"I offer only what I did before. An opportunity to succeed. The choice, as then, remains with you."

"My curiosity is aroused. I will listen."

"One, you sought to preserve the Federation from a believed threat in full knowledge that to act before such a belief was proved to be valid would directly result in the loss of all you held of value. Yet, you still subjugated your normally prevalent tendencies towards unrelenting self-interest and proceeded anyway."

"You well know my . . . view . . . of the Klingons. You should ascribe my action simply to prejudice and hatred, as did my court martial—a greater route for my self-interest to be made manifest in the outright destruction of my enemies. Why do you not?"

"Because the simplest answer is not always the most correct."

"You are reminded of Reunification and your past."

"I . . . am."

"Tell me, and tell me truthfully, if they came extending peace and you believed it a lie-that once they reached Vulcan they intended only to make it a new form of Thierrull; that according to your own Oath, which you have sworn, would you not feel constrained to act to save those who did not yet perceive the imminent horror at their doors?"

"I . . . would . . . feel so."

"But would you act? Knowing what has befallen me? What they think of me? What _he_ thinks of me?"

"I would . . . hope . . . to have acquired proof to justify my thought of danger."

"And if you had none? If you had only your soul's feeling?"

"I . . . . Logic would require I withhold."

"Would it? Or would it require you to act irregardless? He continues his obsession with them. Perhaps you fear that one day, my logic will become yours. That to save the unknowing, you too risk being branded a traitor."

"To . . . speculate on the future is unwise."

"Perhaps. You said two things moved you to think me salvageable. What is the second?"

"You did not kill him to save yourself."

"He noted the failure of my logic to do so, himself."

"I would know why."

"You know why."

"You . . . sought him for your mate."

"He desired a Vulcan woman of great accomplishment. I desired him. Does this . . . displease you?"

"No."

"You are certain?"

"Yes."

"I have seen your eyes when you look at him. And I know that you saw mine. What I fail to see; is why you did not . . . challenge me?"

"Because you are correct in what he desired."

"And yet you are here now, in direct opposition to what you know he would desire now."

"Yes."

"May I ask why you bow to one desire but not to the other?"

"No."

"Interesting. So you find me salvageable."

"Perhaps."

"What is this . . . opportunity . . . you would give me?"

"Starfleet Command is willing to transfer you to Vulcan."

"_What_? Why?"

"Because of these two points. And . . . because of your father."

"You . . . did not."

"I did."

"You violate my privacy!"

"To give you this opportunity, it seemed an acceptable loss."

"You . . . you . . . ."

"Your father's mind-"

"I know his mind!"

"Even a Vulcan Healer's highly trained mind is endangered by melding with one determined to be insane. You were a child, untrained."

"I-"

"The effects of his mind upon yours may have been sufficient to undermine the formulation of correct logical constructs."

"I-What?"

"Combined with the . . . forcible . . . extraction you suffered, the damage may even be extreme. Gol has submitted extradition claim."

"I . . . may go home?"

"To Mount Seleya."

"What . . . what will they do?"

"If damage was done to you as a child which resulted in incorrect mental development, your Starfleet sentencing will be waived on psychological grounds. You will undergo restructuring, be given an enhanced ethic construct system, and be released."

"Released?"

"Released. It is illogical to hold in confine a rehabilitated being."

"What . . . what must I do?"

"If you agree to be tested, and are found damaged, you must undergo the restructuring and retraining procedures."

"Will I . . . will I be . . . myself?"

"You will be the self you would have been had you undergone no damage."

"Will I . . . retain my memories?"

"If you wish."

"Why . . . why are you giving me this?"

"We were friends, were we not?"

"My family . . . my family has removed my name from the record."

"Yes."

"He . . . he will not . . . have anything to do with me."

"No."

"I have lost Starfleet."

"Yes."

"What . . . who . . . I have no one to . . . . I have no where to . . . ."

"We were friends, were we not? You trusted me once, trust me again."

"It has . . . cost you . . . has it not? To do this for me?"

"Yes."

"It will cost you more when I leave Gol."

"Yes."

"Yet you still did this? You still will do this?"

"Yes."

"I . . . wish . . . ."

"I know. What do you say? Will you accept the testing?"

"Yes."

"I will complete the arrangement."

"What . . . what if . . . they find it negliable?"

"Then you will be returned to complete your Starfleet sentence."

"Will you . . . will you still . . . ?"

"I keep my word. I will not leave you alone."

"Saavik?"

"Yes, Valeris?"

"You have been more my . . . House . . . than my blood. Why?"

"We are . . . alike . . . you and I."

"A . . . irony."

"The universe seems fond of such. I must go now. Your preparations will take time."

"I accept honor debt to you."

"I . . . do not require such."

"Nonetheless, I give it. Your House is my House, your Cause is my Cause, your Life is my Life, your Death is my Death—upon my katra, I so swear or choose oblivion instead."

"Then I offer a new salute to you. Wisdom, Valeris, for the both of us."

"Wisdom, Saavik, now and tomorrow."


End file.
